海角大神

The White House is holding out hope that immigration reform can still pass this year, bucking the conventional wisdom that the issue is all but dead for now. 聽

鈥淲e have an opportunity with a new team in place in the House to act,鈥� said Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Obama, at a breakfast聽Friday聽hosted by 海角大神.

On Thursday, House Republicans elected a new majority leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California. He replaces Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, who is stepping down next month from his leadership position after his surprise loss on June 10 in the GOP primary. Congressman Cantor鈥檚 loss to a tea party-backed candidate was widely seen as dashing any remaining hopes of passing immigration reform, at least this year if not for the rest of Mr. Obama鈥檚 presidency.

Ms. Jarrett rejects that idea. Cantor himself has said he did not lose his primary because of immigration reform; polls back him up. But rank-and-file GOP members may still resist acting, given accusations that Cantor favored 鈥渁mnesty鈥� for unlawful immigrants.

House Speaker John Boehner (R) of Ohio has long maintained he wants to solve the issue, but wanted his members to get through this year鈥檚 primaries first. He has also said he wants Obama to show that he can be 鈥渢rusted鈥� 鈥� and that meant not making any more unilateral moves on immigration. Obama has put on hold a review of immigration policy by the Department of Homeland Security.

鈥淗e doesn鈥檛 want to relieve them [the House] of their responsibility to act right now,鈥� says Jarrett. 鈥淎nd if he were to take action right now, they would use that as an excuse for not acting.鈥�

One year ago, the Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform with strong bipartisan support, but the bill has languished in the Republican-led House. Jarrett says public demand for reform will spur Congress to act.

鈥淲hat I can tell is that there is a groundswell coming from around the聽country, and I think that ultimately I am hopeful that that groundswell聽has an impact on the House of Representatives,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 think having heard聽from voices like Rupert Murdoch should be helpful to the Republicans聽who are nervous.鈥�

Earlier this week, Jarrett discussed immigration reform with the conservative media mogul over dinner at the Blue Duck Tavern here in Washington 鈥� an example of her outreach to the business community on the issue.

鈥淕ood policy sometimes makes strange bedfellows,鈥� Jarrett says. 鈥淚 was very heartened聽by Rupert Murdoch鈥檚 passionate interest in immigration reform. He is聽an immigrant himself. He understands from a business perspective how聽important immigration reform would be to our economy.鈥�

On Wednesday, the Australian-born Murdoch published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, which he owns.

鈥淚 don't believe that people come to America to sit on their hands,鈥� Murdoch wrote. 鈥淭he vast majority of America's immigrants are hardworking, family-minded individuals with strong values.鈥�

Analysts say that Republicans need to move on immigration reform to attract Latino votes, or their prospects in the 2016 presidential election will be limited. The issue is less important in this November鈥檚 midterms.

Jarrett repeated the president鈥檚 view, that he is open to seeing the House pass individual pieces of legislation, instead of one big bill, 鈥渁s long as they add up to a whole.鈥�

鈥淲hat we wouldn鈥檛 want to see is just a聽piece of legislation on border security and high tech immigration聽without focusing on the path to citizenship for the 11 million people聽who are here, and other provisions,鈥� says Jarrett. 鈥淎nd so in a sense he leaves it to聽the House to put [out] a proposal, which we are still waiting to see, for what聽that piecemeal, if you will, path might be.鈥�